Houthis Claim Missile Hit on Saudi Arabia's Largest Refinery as Blasts Shake Riyadh

Yemen's Houthis said Tuesday that they struck Saudi Arabia's Ras Tanura oil refinery, the kingdom's largest, with a ballistic missile, while the Saudi-led coalition said it intercepted missiles fired at the Eastern Province and at Riyadh, according to Reuters, AFP and Al Jazeera.

"The Yemeni Armed Forces were able to target the Ras Tanura refinery in the Eastern Province with a ballistic missile," Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree posted on X, saying the strike caused "massive fires," The Straits Times reported, citing AFP. Saudi authorities did not confirm a hit on the refinery.

The coalition's spokesman, Maj. Gen. Turki al-Maliki, said three ballistic missiles aimed at the Eastern Province and four drones headed toward southern Saudi Arabia were intercepted, with no casualties, Al Jazeera reported. The coalition separately said it intercepted two ballistic missiles fired at Riyadh, where a series of explosions shook office windows in the city center and text alerts told residents to seek shelter, according to AFP. Saudi Arabia's Civil Defence agency issued emergency alerts in the Eastern Province and Al Kharj governorate.

Maritime security firm Vanguard said a fire was reported in the Ras Tanura area in the early hours of Tuesday. "The fire has reportedly been contained, while the extent of damage and any impact on oil-loading operations remain unclear at current," it said. Ras Tanura has a capacity of 550,000 barrels a day and is one of the two main ports through which nearly all of Saudi oil exports flow, AFP reported. The complex was hit in a drone attack in early March that forced a partial shutdown.

The strikes are part of a widening war. Yemen's largely dormant conflict reignited in July, months into the war between the United States and Iran that began with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Feb. 28, according to AFP and Al Jazeera. The Houthis declared a maritime blockade of Saudi Arabia, seized stretches of the Red Sea coast in September and have struck Saudi airports, ports and oil facilities. An attack on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh this month killed at least 13 people and wounded more than 300, Al Jazeera reported.

Diplomacy ran in parallel. Saudi Arabia's defense minister, Prince Khalid bin Salman, Pakistan's army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, and Turkey's intelligence chief, Ibrahim Kalin, met Iranian leaders in Tehran on Monday, and the four countries said in a joint statement that they "agreed to continue the dialogue," according to Iranian state media cited by Al Jazeera. Egypt's parliament on Monday authorized defensive military support for Saudi Arabia; a Houthi political bureau member, Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, called that "a declaration of war" against Yemen and said the group was "not afraid of any alliance that may be formed," AFP reported.

The coalition said it carried out retaliatory strikes on Monday that destroyed five tunnels used to store ballistic missiles, four launchers and a missile depot, Al Jazeera reported. The Houthis report frequent Saudi strikes in areas they control.

What remains unknown: whether the refinery was hit, how much damage the fire caused, whether exports from Ras Tanura were interrupted, and what military role Egypt will take.